Thanks for your comment! I know that many of us believe that Lyme is passed sexually, but it is controversial nonetheless. Do you have a Lyme literate doctor availabable to you within driving distance – or anywhere in your country? Or do you have to treat yourself? Have you been sick on and off since ’79 or extremely ill the whole time? Feel free to peruse the free ebooks on this site and I have four more to add. I love to write but have to work around the Lyme fog. I am actually trying out a protocol that could be a life saver for many…and I promise to keep all my subscribers posted. The protocol takes one month instead of open-ended like all the others (except stem cell therapy) but the cost difference between the 2 is about $50,000 – $70,000 vs. $500 – $1000! And most of us are so financially destroyed by this disease!!

Anyways, thanks again for your comment.

Blessings,

Jenna

About 1.5 million deer a year are involved in collisions with vehicles and most of them die, but some are injured and live on in crippled condition. This is a tragedy for the deer, but also, about 29,000 of these accidents involve human injuries, and about 200, human fatalities. The deer overpopulation problem won’t get better without deer management.

Second, yes, it’s true that a lot of smaller animals have a role in hosting Lyme bacteria, especially in the first year of the tick life cycle. This is why there is a focus on the white-footed mouse, since it is indeed a reservoir for the bacteria. But the one large mammal that is present in sufficient density during the crucial second year of the tick life cycle, when the adult female deer tick needs a blood meal and some transportation, is the deer.

One deer can transport hundreds of ticks. One female tick can lay 2,000 to 3,000 eggs. It is again unfortunate that the deer have this role.

Again, it is a matter of threshold density, and you can dramatically reduce Lyme disease if you can get the deer population down to about 10 per square mile. This also has a dramatic benefit for allowing the woodlands to regenerate.

Unfortunately, deer have been allowed to overpopulate to really high densities, like 40, 60, 80 per square mile, especially in suburban towns. (There are extremes in certain places that are hard to believe unless you visit them, such as 200 deer per square mile.) When you see this condition, you see nothing on the forest floor but leaf litter, and stream banks that are eroding.

Most foresters and conservationists recognize that they have no choice but to manage the deer. To do otherwise would be to abrogate their responsibilities to all the other forest creatures and the very future of the woodlands that are under their stewardship.

The folks from Mumford Cove are feeling very good about the results of their deer management program, which as an animal lover I would prefer for all kinds of reasons.

I think a vaccine and cure would be the BEST!! Don’t you?

I was with you on most of your statements until the last paragraph. It’s completely WRONG to call this a “radical deer-eradication plan.” It’s neither “radical” nor “eradication.”

In Mumford Cove, they did not “eradicate” the deer, but yet they achieved dramatic decreases in Lyme disease. Other than Monhegan Island, I do not know of a single attempt to remove all deer from any location, and I have now researched many dozens of deer management efforts.

Deer management means reducing the density to a level that is good for the forest, is good for reducing Lyme, and reduces the slaughter of deer by cars. It does not mean eliminating the deer.

And if you look around, you will see that there is nothing “radical” about deer management. It is practiced by the Nature Conservancy, the Audubon Society, the National Park Service and the USDA’s Wildlife Service. It is also practiced by hundreds of towns in the eastern and central states.

After careful study of all the alternatives, it is the practice that is seen as the most practical and effective by many experts, and you can see this in the booklet, “Managing Urban Deer in Connecticut,” published by the CT DEP (and also available on the CT Department of Public Health website).

You can find it here:
http://www.ct.gov/dph/lib/dph/urbandeer07.pdf and also here:
http://www.ct.gov/dep/lib/dep/wildlife/pdf_files/game/urbandeer07.pdf.

In many areas, the deer population is so out of control that no forest regeneration will take place and the habitat for dozens of native species of flora and fauna has been destroyed. Among foresters and land conservators, there isn’t a lot of “controversy” about this. Good stewardship of the land means preserving the habitat of all the flora and fauna, not just neglecting it and allowing one species to dominate and obliterate the habitat of dozens of endangered species.

Much more info on all facets of deer and tick-borne disease will be available soon at deerfacts.org.

-Dave Shugarts
Member, Newtown Lyme Disease Task Force
Newtown Liaison, Fairfield County Municipal Deer Management Alliance